Welcome!
I like muck...especially when it's dissolved in surface waters. Scientists call that dissolved organic matter (DOM) and my students and I try to figure out:
In other words, I wish to understand the flux and cycling of DOM in surface waters, both fresh and salty. My research areas have included fresh and saline lakes, rivers, estuaries, and coastal shelves. Field sites have included: Chesapeake Bay, Hawai'i, San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound, Gulf of Mexico, Baltic Sea, and Beaufort Sea.
These days, my students, postdocs, and I are studying DOM worldwide. We work a lot on rivers and estuaries in North Carolina and particularly on effects of extreme weather events on coastal carbon cycling. See our recent publication here: https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lno.70426. Current projects also include DOM in the Florida Coastal Everglades; DOM in North Carolina estuaries (Neuse River, Pamlico River, Chowan River). We are using our fluorescence methods to examine sources of DOM during "sunny day flooding" related to king tides, as a tracer for inflow and infiltration in sewersheds, and to study the reactivity of DOM from landfill leachate to estuarine phytoplankton.
I try to update this page semi-regularly (Ed. note: NO HE DOESN'T). You can reach me at: [email protected].
I am recruiting a graduate student for Spring 2027. Details here.
Connect with me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-osburn-73954417b/).
For publications see:
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y_SfXAQAAAAJ&hl=en
New(er) Publications:
I like muck...especially when it's dissolved in surface waters. Scientists call that dissolved organic matter (DOM) and my students and I try to figure out:
- What are its sources in natural waters?
- What is its biological and chemical reactivity in natural waters?
- What information does it contain about environmental processes?
In other words, I wish to understand the flux and cycling of DOM in surface waters, both fresh and salty. My research areas have included fresh and saline lakes, rivers, estuaries, and coastal shelves. Field sites have included: Chesapeake Bay, Hawai'i, San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound, Gulf of Mexico, Baltic Sea, and Beaufort Sea.
These days, my students, postdocs, and I are studying DOM worldwide. We work a lot on rivers and estuaries in North Carolina and particularly on effects of extreme weather events on coastal carbon cycling. See our recent publication here: https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lno.70426. Current projects also include DOM in the Florida Coastal Everglades; DOM in North Carolina estuaries (Neuse River, Pamlico River, Chowan River). We are using our fluorescence methods to examine sources of DOM during "sunny day flooding" related to king tides, as a tracer for inflow and infiltration in sewersheds, and to study the reactivity of DOM from landfill leachate to estuarine phytoplankton.
I try to update this page semi-regularly (Ed. note: NO HE DOESN'T). You can reach me at: [email protected].
I am recruiting a graduate student for Spring 2027. Details here.
Connect with me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-osburn-73954417b/).
For publications see:
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y_SfXAQAAAAJ&hl=en
New(er) Publications:
- Osburn, C. L., Bianchi, T. S., Paerl, H. W., Hall, N. S., Hounshell, A. G., Rudolph, J. C., ... & Paerl, R. W. (2026). Carbon source and weather in coastal North Carolina. Limnology and Oceanography, 71(6), e70426.
- Harrison, J. M., Osburn, C. L., Darrow, E. S., Morrison, E., Harris, A., & Nelson, N. G. (2026). Developing Predictive Models Using Sonde Data To Estimate Fecal Contamination in Estuarine Waters. ACS ES&T Water, 6(5), 2741-2760.
- Osburn, C. L., & Zepeda, S. G. C. (2025). Improved Quantification of Stormwater Dilution in Wastewater Treatment Plant Influent Using Organic Mater Fluorescence. NC WRRI.
- Hoff, P., & Osburn, C. L. (2025). Evaluation of the linear mixing model in fluorescence spectroscopy. Next Research, 2(3), 100540.
- Bryan, J. G., Hoff, P. D., & Osburn, C. L. (2025). Linear source apportionment using generalized least squares. Technometrics, 67(1), 73-81.
- Asmala, E., Paerl, R. W., & Osburn, C. L. (2025). Optical transformation of riverine colored dissolved organic matter during salt-induced flocculation. Biogeochemistry, 168(3), 47.
- Lebrasse, M. C., Schaeffer, B. A., Bohnenstiehl, D. R., Osburn, C. L., Coffer, M. M., He, R., ... & Graybill, D. D. (2025). Winter-Spring dynamics of dissolved organic carbon fluxes driven by precipitation in a North Carolina tidal marsh. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 322, 109361.
- Anderson, K. J., Kominoski, J. S., Osburn, C. L., & Smith, M. A. (2024). Shifting sources and fates of carbon with increasing hydrologic presses and pulses in coastal wetlands. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 129(7), e2023JG007903.
- Bryan, J., Hoff, P., & Osburn, C. L. (2023). Routine Estimation of Dissolved Organic Matter Sources Using Fluorescence Data and Linear Least Squares. ACS ES&T Water, 3(8), 2073-2082.
